Dzifa Benson, who was born in London to Ghanaian parents and grew up in Ghana, Nigeria and Togo and is now based in London, is an award-winning artist in multiple media . Literature is her primary mode for making things but she also uses art, science, technology, the body and ritual to tell stories. She explores all this through poetry, prose, theatre, libretto, performance, curation, video, installation, immersive technologies, essays, criticism and teaching. She embraces collaboration and participation at the heart of what she does and is really interested in research-led, site-specific work that subverts the use of existing spaces. Before all this, she worked as a parliamentary assistant for a member of parliament for seven years.
Her work has been translated into Italian, awarded a Jerwood Foundation Fellowship, two Arts Council England awards, a fellowship from Hedgebrook and shortlisted for the inaugural James Berry Prize in 2020 and the Bridport Poetry Prize 2023. She has read and performed it internationally in many contexts such as: producer and host of a literature and music experience in the Dissenters Gallery of Kensal Green Cemetery; core artist in Africa Beyond's cross-arts project, Translations and as a poet at BBC Contains Strong Language; librettist at The Genesis Foundation and The Royal Opera House’s The Singing Word/Vox initiative and at The Foundling Museum; guest poet at Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the House of Commons, Shakespeare & Co Bookshop in Paris, ITV Studios, Café Mono Nightclub in Oslo and the Royal Festival Hall; curator of a poetry performance responding to the work of artist David Hockney at Tate Britain; panellist at Ledbury Poetry Festival; guest writer at Istituto Svizzero in Milan for DEARS Magazine and broadcast on BBC World Service, BBC Radio Three and BBC London.
Currently, she is an Associate Artist with Tavaziva Dance and has held poetry, curatorial and editorial residences at Whitstable Biennale, Orleans House Gallery, the Courtauld Institute of Art, Pallant House Gallery, Estuary Festival, Wakehurst (Kew Gardens), the Royal Geographical Society and Granta Magazine. Her poetry, stories, libretti, plays, essays and arts journalism have been published and presented in The Financial Times, The Telegraph, The Guardian, Philosophy Now, Poetry Review, Magma Poetry, Southbank Centre, Tate Britain, Bristol Old Vic, the Bush Theatre, Kings Place and BBC London.
As a dramatist and dramaturg, she works a lot with the National Youth Theatre for who she abridged and adapted its 2021 touring production of Othello starring Francesca Amewudah-Rivers. Her monologue, A Good Day, written for the digital film Locked Down/Locked In, was awarded Best Original Script at Athens International Monthly Art Film Festival. She regularly collaborates with classical music composers to create operas, recitals and other dramatic pieces and was an assistant dramaturg on the New Play Dramaturgy Intensive at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington DC.
Since 2005, she has designed, devised and facilitated creative and education initiatives utilising poetry in schools and community organisations with a strong focus on Applied Theatre and participation. Working with children and young people including ESOL and SEND learners in primary, secondary and tertiary education, she has facilitated workshops, after-school sessions, masterclasses, lectures, seminars and bespoke long-term projects incorporating poetry, storytelling, performance, theatre, songwriting, reportage and creative non-fiction. Clients have included ITV Studios, Cement Fields, Apples & Snakes, English PEN, Creative Partnerships, The British Library and City & Islington College. She has an MA in Text & Performance from Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and Birkbeck, University of London.
